


Letters from Babylon

by griffonskies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Shance Holiday Exchange 2019, a lot of dimension hopping, a total AU, it's mostly just Lance going through his day and remembering where he is and how he got there, no subtlety about it, that's one long tag, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22293781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griffonskies/pseuds/griffonskies
Summary: The first time Lance got a letter from the Babylon post office it was unsigned, untitled, no return address. But it popped into existence in the right moment, right when he needed it.Over the years more letters like that kept coming.Until one day, he stumbled upon a small, hidden cafe...
Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	Letters from Babylon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ellipsis_for_all](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellipsis_for_all/gifts).



> Hello!  
> This comes awfully tardy, but I hope you like it and it was at least a bit worth the wait!
> 
> It was a struggle. And I have no idea why, because it has magic and Shance, two of my fav things.  
> But I started on one idea, then the muse wanted another idea, then I came back to this idea twice before settling on a completely other idea... only to come back to this one. I have almost 5K of unfinished stories now all featuring Shance in a magical hospitality establishment... XD  
> But I'm quite happy with this one. So I hope you like it!

Lance looked around the emptying cafe garden as the people slowly wandered off home to prepare for the celebrations. Snow kept falling from the clear afternoon sky, light and fluffy and warm. Warm, not cold - Lance smiled as he remembered Shiro pouting when they found _that_ out. It caught only on designated places, perfect for snowball fights, building snowmen and as decoration. 

But the magic would not let it settle anywhere else, or on anyone for that matter. The Wisemen had declared it a slipping hazard and the magic was woven to reflect such. The only place snow was real snow was on the Rosemary Hill in the Gardens. A fence was erected around it to keep the area cold and winter like. And if you wanted snow falling in your yard for Christmas and Yule, you had to fill out special request forms, in triplicate. 

The Bell sounded as the last airship of the day flew through the gates. The cloud sea parted in front of it, as it made its way to dock at the Main port. The Sky port and Horizon port having been closed since yesterday. 

One of the last remaining patrons waved at Lance, so he continued on his work, as the people of Babylon hustled and bustled around the bazaar for last minute gift shopping. 

When the last of the patrons left, Lance closed and locked the gate and put up the closed sign, taking care to not catch any of the trellis hanging roses in the door. Lance was still unsure why the locking of the gate was important since the fence was nothing more than a waist high wooden structure with white heather and silver sage trailing all over and around it. He jumped over it enough times to know it had no force field over it. Allura just smiled at him every time he raised the question, she would put a finger to her lips and tell him it was a “Family Secret”.

After finishing cleaning up and putting everything away, he jumped the fence and set out on the city. There was still one present he was missing! Romelle might argue that it was the most important of the presents he might place under their Christmas tree. And Hunk would jump in and absolutely agree that not having a present for your fiancé was probably an offence in some Christmas guidebook somewhere. 

Lance privately agreed with them. Although Shiro being from a universe that did not celebrate Christmas or a similar holiday - “We _do_ have holidays, they just depend on the positions of stars or the nebulas magnetic field shifting - it literally changes colour in the sky - and not a random position of the planet while revolving around its star!” - probably did not even know what to expect exactly. And Lance had no intention of spoiling that surprise. 

Oh, they’ve talked about their different worlds at length. But explaining and watching Christmas movies - which Shiro dutifully sat through with him start to finish (earning him a brownie platter from Hunk for some reason!) - isn’t the same as living it all your life.

He walked down the cobbled street, the bazaar alight with lanterns of all shapes and sizes in the violet twilight. People walked all around him, leaning over colourful merchandise in the stalls, eating street foods and taking pictures of the holiday decorations strewn about. A live band played on a podium at the centre off the Market Square. Street performers were showing off their magic tricks. And merchants were calling out to passersby, showing off their craftsmanship, and those with magic showed off their enchanted wares. Lance passed stalls with grand vases, colourful and intricate tapestries and carpets, stalls so overflowing with books that half of them were levitating around it, exotic foods and spices, trinket stands and charms and glowing crystals. 

But Lance’s destination was pass the bazaar, pass the shopping street, up the main steps to the Second Level. The city expanding upwards in a spiral instead of outwards had many steps and passages leading from the docks all the way up to the library at the very top. But only one stairway connected all the seven levels and was so wide and grand it would take you five minutes to walk from one side to the other, littered on both sides with cafes and shops and restaurants it was for all instances and purposes the main square (although there was a Main Square by the parliament on the First Level - counted from the top - no-one actually thought of it as such.)

And there on the Second Level was the post office. 

The first time he got a letter from this post office, though no-one knew it at the time, he was in kindergarten. It was Valentines day and everyone was getting letters from secret crushes. And after all the letters have been given out and none were for him, he felt a pang in his chest but smiled bravely at his teacher as she pretended that a staple letter from the extra pile was a letter for him. There was a silent pop and a letter appeared under her hand on the table. The children would share it was magic and the teacher would stare she had just not noticed it at the time. But either way it was a letter for Lance and in it was a pretty crayon drawn flower and scribbles that seemed to be letters that Lance could not read. But it did not matter because it was the prettiest flower that he had ever gotten and there was even a blue heart drawn on the back! 

The letters kept coming after that, with varying frequency. Little notes with scribbles and letters Lance couldn’t read. Some of them looked asian to him and he took some of them to a friend who proclaimed the writing was in Korean (and luckily he knew exactly Korean). 

_“But this is all gibberish, Lance! Were you playing at writing or something?” His friend had exclaimed, shoving the brush calligraphy back at him._

Some looked Japanese, some Russian. There was one written in Norwegian that was just a shopping list for what seemed like gingerbread cookies and mulled wine with a heart drawn in the corner instead of a name. 

Of those he could read there were random letters that might have been for a penpal, describing everyday life… if that everyday life was in a world where horses flew, or a life where there were two suns in the sky, or two moons, or the ocean was green instead of blue or the sun white instead of yellow. There were pieces of paper with random quotes, all unfamiliar but still wise. Pages from poetry books and ripped book pages with underlined paragraphs and scribbles in the corners. And often, letters aimed at a loved one. 

And those that were addressed… all had Lance’s name on them.

Then there were pages and pages of sketches, pencil and ink and colour and full on paintings, seemingly ripped from sketchbooks. Some were of nature, some architecture with text scribbled around it in two handwritings. 

And then some were portraits of Lance. Young Lance, old Lance, Lance with pointed ears and markings under his eyes. 

He did not know who they were from. Or where from they appeared. The only other name than his own he could find across the work was Shiro. And sometimes Takashi.

Until one day, while backpacking across the foreign continent, across the ocean from his home, Lance walked down a small side street, in a small old town, and down the empty cobbled steps. A cafe caught his attention, plain in make, the windows wide and simple wooden tables and stools. The print on the glass declared it The Gate cafe, for it was located underneath what used to be an ancient stone gate. 

He felt a tug, then a pull and in the end could not help but come in to beg a startled Allura, the only person there behind the counter, to please please let him stay and work there because there is where he needed to be.

On his first day at work, apron tied around his waist, he took up a tray with coffee and water, turned around from the door to the patron sitting at the back of the cafe. He felt a warm force pass through him as nonexistent wind made his apron flutter and the back of the cafe spread and opened and faded into The Gate cafe on the Fifth Level of Babylon. There was no sign of the wood panel covered back wall of the cafe he knew, only a wide multicoloured window and a door opening up to a garden sitting area. 

Three months later, Shiro crashed through a portal right at the rose gates of the cafe.

Or at least _a_ Shiro did.

_“See, this particular shelving unit,” said the post office worker (name tag declared him as Adam) to Lance and Shiro, slapping his palm on a particularly old looking piece of furniture at the back of the office, “is an ancient magic - we’ve no idea how it works - but it gathers every lost or misplaced letter or note from every reality and decides where it wants it to be sent.”_

_Lance and Shiro just stared at the overflowing shelves, a few random letters popped in and out of existence on it while they were taking the information in._

_“So…” said Shiro, “every note that Lance or I note-”_

_“Oh not just you,_ **_every_ ** _reality!” said Adam, as if that made more sense._

_“So every… us,” here Shiro pointed between Lance and him, ”in every reality contributed to the letters we got?”_

_“Exactly!” said Adam._

_“But… why did we get the letters and notes? There were a lot of them and the unit…” said Lance, looking at the shelving still slowly popping letters in and out of different realities, “… the unit looks relatively small? Did every…us, get letters like that? Does everyone?”_

_“Oh, no no! The units in this room were made by the Fates, they decide who gets the letters! And which letters at that!” said Adam, then continued when they just stared at him in blank confusion. “All the units here gather lost notes and letters across realities but this particular unit only gathers love letters. So there are enough yous,” he pointed at Lance, “in love with hims,” here he pointed at Shiro, “and vice versa to fill the shelf, and the Fates decided for some reason that you two in particular should get those letters in this point in time.”_

_“If that’s all, I’ll get back to work now. Please feel free to look around if you wish!” Adam finished, hands clapping with a forced smile, when they made no further comment after a long silence._

Lance entered the post office and patiently stood in line for one of the package counters. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Adam entering through a door, then catching sight of Lance and making a beeline to the Fates post room. He came out a few minutes later just as Lance was finishing up and slammed a bundle of letters atop of the package Lance was holding. 

“There! That’s all from the last month - why, oh why did the system stop automatically sending them when you decided to live here, good grief - do come more often will you?!” said Adam in exasperation, pushing his glasses back up. 

Lance took a moment to catch his balance from the shove and to get a better hold of the stack of paper before it fell all over the floor, “Uh, thanks - will do - Oh and happy holidays!” 

“You too!” said Adam, then he clapped Lance on the shoulder so hard it almost made Lance lose his balance again.

The first time Lance showed the letters to Hunk, a Babylon native, he just nodded at him and smiled, “Oh cool! So that’s how it works!”

Then Shiro came to Babylon.

_“Okay, look I know the Fates decided to send you guys the letters - and the Fates usually know what they’re doing - BUT!” said Hunk, poking Lance in the chest for emphasis, “You can’t just fall into a relationship! A few letters, not meant for_ **_you_ ** _you does not a relationship make!”_

_“We know! That’s why we’re just going out for coffee tomorrow. We’re just getting to know each other!” said Lance, then added, “As potential friends!”, as Hunk just squinted his eyes at him._

_“You just find him hot don’t you?” said Hunk in exasperation a moment later, and Lance felt his face go hot in an instant._

_“Hunk!”_

_“And you’ve already put the guy on a heros pedestal.”_

_“Well, he flung himself through half a galaxy_ **_and_ ** _two realities just to save the universe at large, I dunno Hunk, that sounds heroic to_ **_me_ ** _!”_

_“Whatever,” said Hunk, waving his hand like clearing away smoke, even though he was just as in awe of Shiro’s story the other day. But then he added, fondly, “Just be careful you two, okay?”_

By the time Lance made his way back to the cafe with the wrapped gift and a stack of letters, the square was almost empty, the few bazaar merchants still there were closing their stalls for the night and the few people there hurried pass on their way to their homes and families and friends.

In the cafe garden he could see the string lights already up and the aroma from the barbecue reached all the way down the street. He skirted around the cafe fence, then jumped behind the shed, wanting to put the present under the tree alone. He entered through the back door, through the kitchen and into the main area where the big tree was taking up almost half the living room. The lights were dim, a fire danced in the fireplace and little string lights flashed on and off all over the place. 

Lance put his carefully wrapped silver gift with black stars right next to the blue gift bag stuffed with an abundance of blue tissue paper. He smiled at the two presents side by side, lovingly reaching out to touch the name tag addressed to him in the all too familiar handwriting.

Outside the voices got louder as everyone gathered to celebrate the holidays. Lance stood up and joined them, going over to sit down next to his fiancé and kiss at Shiro’s cheek. Only to get a proper kiss in return. 

  
  



End file.
